On Mon, 13 Sep 1999, Richard Spindler wrote:

> >
> >Just a preemptive warning, tftp on linux in general is broken - since
> >nobody seems to patch the blessed thing.
> 
> Works fine under debian, i have done several tftp/bootp installs on 
> NetBSD to DECStation 2100s using it.

it mightn't affect DECStations, but it breaks sparcstations badly. :(

The problems in the tftpd are as follows:

1) /tftpboot IS NOT the root directory for tftp as documented and
   parameter 1 is ignored.

2) Unpathed TFTP requests are rejected.

3) The classic TFTP sources don't compile clean against glibc2 [they need
   editing]

These can be easily patched in the code, but nobody AFAIK has submitted
formal patches except for 3.

Point 2 is the real killer though.  Sun SparcStations don't send a leading
/ on the request filename, so the unpatched tftpd rejects them.

I'm not sure if these were fixed in debian, since I haven't tftp booted a
box in a while.

Also, I was having similar problems booting a DecStation 5000/240 which
was trapping in the boot rom before the tftp started AFAIK [my machines
are at opposite end of the house, so tcpdump is a little inconveniant to
run to monitor the negotiation.]

Hopefully my information about tftpd is still moderately accurate ;)  its
been a while since I looked at the distributed source.
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